LibreOffice distinguishes itself by excluding generative AI from its default setup, emphasising local control and privacy over cloud-based features, contrasting with Microsoft and Google’s AI-driven updates.
LibreOffice is turning a long-held absence into a selling point. The open-source office suite says it will not add generative artificial intelligence to its default configuration, presenting that decision as a practical advantage for people and organisations that need tighter control over documents and data. The move, first explained by The Document Foundation and reported by TechCrunch, places LibreOffice on a different path from Microsoft and Google, both of which have embedded AI more deeply into their productivity software.
The foundation’s argument rests on privacy and data handling. It says office files can contain highly sensitive material, including medical records, legal papers and student information, so users should be able to know exactly when content leaves their devices and where it is processed. According to the project, any future AI integration would have to let users decide where processing happens, avoid unauthorised uploads to remote servers, remove telemetry, work with more than one provider and remain fully optional, including in enterprise builds.
The latest release, LibreOffice 26.8, reinforced that position. The project highlighted at launch on 26 August that the suite does not include generative AI, does not require an internet connection to function and does not send documents to external services for processing. That offline-first design has become central to the software’s identity, especially for users who value local control over cloud-based convenience.
LibreOffice is not ruling out AI altogether. The foundation says it could revisit the question if it finds an implementation that meets its technical and privacy requirements over the full life of a release. For now, users who want AI can rely on third-party extensions that connect LibreOffice to tools such as Ollama, LM Studio or services compatible with the OpenAI API, including local models that keep processing on the machine. The project warns, however, that these add-ons are maintained by outside developers and may still route information to cloud services.
Microsoft and Google are moving in the opposite direction. Reuters-style coverage in TechCrunch noted that Copilot is already embedded across Word, Excel and PowerPoint, while Gemini is built into Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Gmail and Drive, with both companies continuing to expand automated document creation, editing and analysis. LibreOffice’s response is to make the absence of generative AI part of its product promise: in a default installation, there is no model to contact, no document to upload and no need to trust a remote service to keep content private.
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